


the cosmos is funny that way

by seraphicbane



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Fluff, M/M, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:04:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphicbane/pseuds/seraphicbane
Summary: magnus isn't having a great day. neither is alec. the universe has their back.(inspired by the iconic tumblr post: "my favorite college experience is when i had a 7am class and the kid next to me literally poured a monster energy drink into his coffee said “i’m going to die” and drank the whole thing") （✿ ͡◕ ᴗ◕)つ━━✫・*。





	the cosmos is funny that way

**Author's Note:**

> hi, you! i have but one humble wish - all you have to do is be here, in this one present moment you have, and breathe. not a crazy big task, huh? i hope that this can help you like writing it helped me run from the suckiness of real life shenanigans for just a minute. you're free to proceed. <3

Magnus had a general belief that everything happened for a rightful reason and that even in his lowest moments and during his longest days the universe had his back. Today, however, had started shaping up to be one of those special days where the rule didn’t seem to apply. The universe had clearly had it with his antics.

The morning had gloriously started with his alarm not going off because he’d somehow managed to tug his phone off its charger and thrown it on the floor sometime during the night he’d thought he’d spent peacefully sleeping, causing it to run out of battery and thus silencing his alarm. Due to this, he woke up exactly five minutes before he absolutely had to get out the door in order to make it to his seven am class on time. As he stumbled across his apartment to gather together all of his books and pencils he made a mental note to start working on a lawsuit against the government for still allowing their lectures to begin at such unholy times. 

After pouring his coffee into a thermos and making sure his utterly disgruntled cat wouldn’t starve to death while he was gone he ran out of the door, not willing to even think about how he looked. Horrifyingly enough that was not at all on the list of his top priorities. 

Sparing a glance at the clock and realizing he was still completely on time almost gave him enough reason to breathe a sigh of relief, at least until he got into the lobby of his apartment building and looked outside only to find that New York was finally getting some of its well awaited rain. This could’ve been fine, but followed by the realization that he didn’t have an umbrella with him and needed to walk two blocks to the subway station, fine wasn’t quite the word he would’ve used. 

“Are you serious?” He muttered under his breath, calculating his options for all of five seconds before pushing through the door and into the pouring rain, a plastic folder over his head, counting on it to be his saving grace. 

And it was, at least for a little while. He didn’t get too badly soaked on his way to the subway station, by some miracle, but that was where the miraculous happenings stopped. Once he finally made it to campus he was soaking wet, freezing and miserable and he didn’t even think to question why or how although he’d been fine until he stepped out of the train on his stop. It all just seemed to fit the theme of the day.

With four minutes left until the beginning of his lecture, Magnus refrained from sprinting inside the main building and instead took a deep, steadying breath at the front door before pulling it open and walking in. He was going to be fine. Absolutely perfect.

As he made his way into the lecture hall, looking for the seat he regularly sat in, he was ecstatic to find that nobody was really paying attention the absolute travesty that was his state of being. Never had he ever been so grateful for the slightly chaotic atmosphere of a lecture hall before an early morning class. _Positivity is key_ , he found himself thinking, barely able to refrain the bitter chuckle from escaping his lips. 

Finally sitting down and getting his equipment out of his bag, he let his breathing return to normal and the tension melt away from his shoulders. He was okay, he'd made it. Maybe the universe hadn't entirely abandoned him after all.

Except that literal seconds later his phone screen lit up with two almost simultaneous text messages from Clary. 

_Ali just broke up with me._

_Via text, Magnus._

Magnus glanced up at the ceiling and pinched the bridge of his nose. Maybe he was still sleeping and his subconscious just wanted him to question the entire human experience through getting a taste of the ridiculous lengths of absurdity reality could reach. 

He sighed, deflated. He had always been kind of indifferent about this now ex-girlfriend of Clary’s, but he wanted nothing more than for Clary to be happy, and this certainly wasn’t a way to make that happen. 

With a minute left to spare he typed a quick message back to her insisting that she should come by his apartment later that day so that he could buy her Chinese takeout and threw the phone back into his bag. Finally, after what seemed like a minute stretched on for weeks, their professor walked in and a perfect silence and stillness settled in the room. 

“Welcome to Criminal Law 101. You know me, I am professor Imogen Herondale and I expect nothing less than unconditional commitment and outstanding results from every last one of you during this course. Now...” 

The girl sitting behind him sighed as if in resignation. 

Once done with her quite lengthy introduction that Magnus knew had been carefully crafted for the sole purpose of scaring off those of the students who weren’t very serious about their studies, professor Herondale smiled and settled herself behind the desk at the very front of the lecture hall. 

Magnus opened his notebook and was just about to write the date in the top right corner of the blank page when he noticed the man next to him pulling out an energy drink, slowly opening the obnoxiously bright green can and pouring every last drop of its contents into his half-empty coffee cup. 

“I’m going to die,” He mumbled quietly before squeezing his eyes shut and chugging the entire concoction in one go. Or at least as much of it as he could before he looked like he was really going to die, putting down the cup and grimacing in a way that made his nose scrunch adorably, the look unnecessarily endearing on the man’s handsome face. "Oh, god. This is awful."

This really wasn’t what Magnus was supposed to be focusing on, especially after what he had done to get there in that lecture hall on time, and yet the next second he found himself reaching out to touch the exhausted-looking stranger’s arm. Damned be his pride. 

The man turned to look at him, his hazel eyes wide in question, some of that disgust from the overly caffeinated hellish drink lingering on his features.

“I’m no doctor,” Magnus whispered, sure not to interrupt the lecture in any way – that was the last thing he needed. “But you might actually die if you drink the rest of that.” 

The gorgeous stranger glanced at the coffee cup and a faint, amused smile appeared on his lips. “You think?” 

Magnus shook his head lightly. He had no idea what this man had been through to end up in this situation, but he looked like he’d run a marathon on absolutely no sleep, entirely powered by caffeine. Magnus’ heart ached, just a little bit. “Are you okay?” 

The man stilled and looked him in the eyes, his own expression softening. “No, I am, I’m sorry. I’m just… really stressed and running on virtually no sleep. Like, none.” 

“Okay,” Magnus breathed in something like relief, the words flooding out of his mouth before even having the chance to think them through: “You have absolutely no reason to trust me, but I’m still proposing a deal. You take a nap and I will take notes for two.”

It was probably the stupidest thing he’d said in a while, but the expression on the stranger’s face almost made it worth it. 

“What? You would do that?” 

“Call me a humanitarian,” Magnus shrugged with a hint of a smile. 

It took no more convincing than that and a minute later the man was soundly asleep, leaning on his folded arms on the tabletop. From that moment on the lecture progressed at a fairly peaceful pace which Magnus was endlessly grateful for considering he was – by his very own will and decision, in charge of writing down everything notable in two different notebooks. 

He glanced at the sleeping stranger and caught himself softly smiling at how completely at ease he looked. God, he could never let any of his friends know about this, he would never be able to live it down. 

For the rest of the lecture he focused solely on the subject at hand, writing detailed descriptions of each new term that was introduced and making sure to take down every mentioned source for additional information and whatnot. 

The man next to him startled awake the moment they were dismissed, sitting upright and looking around with a panicked expression, like he wasn’t sure where exactly he was and how he’d gotten there. 

Magnus slid the man’s notebook in front of him with an empathetic smile, tapping his pen against the page covered in neat cursive writing written in said navy blue glitter gel pen. 

“You’re all good. I have a tendency to keep my promises,” Magnus said as he started packing his things despite feeling the strangers’ curious eyes still on him. 

“I- uh…” The man fumbled for words and looked down at the freshly taken notes before looking back up, this time catching Magnus’ eye. “Thank you…” 

“It’s Magnus,” he provided kindly, closing his own notebook and tossing it in his bag with the rest of his things. 

“Alec,” The stranger, now equipped with a name, said, and Magnus couldn’t help but raise an elegant eyebrow in question. “It’s short for Alexander, but nobody really calls me that.” 

“Well, Alexander,” Magnus said as he stood up to leave the room, Alec beside him. “I rather enjoy doing things that other people usually don’t.” 

This time Magnus dared to look at the man when he smiled at him, and it was very worth it because the faint blush that spread across Alec’s cheeks at his words was just about the most adorable thing he’d ever witnessed. It was almost enough to make him forget about everything else in the world until they got into the lobby and rain was still heavily pouring against the large windows, no sign of it stopping.

“Of course,” Magnus sighed heavily.

Alec frowned at the expression on his face. “What's wrong?”

“I had somewhat a situation with my alarm this morning. That thing made me very late and I was too preoccupied by trying to get my shit together in minutes to check the weather forecast or even look out of the window before leaving the house so I didn’t think to take an umbrella with me, which forced me to brave the weather and I would rather not do it again,” he explained, sounding exceedingly stupid when saying it all out loud. “That is why I look like I’ve crawled out of a sewer, by the way. I’m honestly sorry you had to see this,” he gestured vaguely at himself, grimacing for good measure.

Alec only let out a soft chuckle. “If this is how you look on your worst day, I –“ He stopped himself mid-sentence, but he already had Magnus’ full attention. 

“Do tell,” He smiled in amusement. 

“Uh, I have an umbrella, actually,” Alec said instead, looking down at his feet. “And you really saved me back there, so maybe I could return the favor.” 

“Well I would certainly be stupid not to take the offer.” 

The two of them barely fit under the rather large umbrella but somehow they made it work. Magnus was truly just grateful he could stay somewhat dry now that his clothes had kind of managed to recover from the morning’s tragedy. Being almost literally glued to Alec’s side wasn’t entirely horrible either, and more importantly, Alec seemed to not mind their closely shared space. 

They walked the few blocks it took to get to Magnus’ station and once there, Magnus turned to Alec to thank him. “Thank you, for saving both me and my wardrobe. I’m forever indebted to you for this noble deed.”

Alec chuckled, glancing away – something he seemed to be prone to doing when nervous. “I feel like the fact that I still have an academic future because of you is a bigger deal than that.”

“Oh, I will spare you the details of the value of my wardrobe, but I assure you the value is similar to that of your degree.” The taller man’s eyes widened in what he assumed was shock and he was quick to assure him that he was joking. Kind of. 

Magnus was just about to turn away and say his goodbyes when the man spoke up, completely catching him off guard. “You said that you didn’t have time to take an umbrella with you this morning so I’m going to assume that you didn’t have time to eat either. What do you say about lunch?”

Magnus opened his mouth in sheer surprise, the words getting stuck somewhere on the way. “Um- I would say that you probably really think I’m joking, about the cost of my clothes. I live primarily on ramen noodles, Alexander.” 

Alec laughed, one of those completely sincere, unguarded laughs and Magnus knew he had a tendency to be dramatic but he could feel the warmth of it in his very soul. 

“Then let me rephrase my question. Can I buy you lunch?” 

He didn't know it then, but saying yes to a seemingly trivial thing like that somehow not only turned around the course of his day, but the course of his entire life, too. Perhaps he was right about the universe all along.


End file.
